Across Worlds: A Ranger's Tale (A Lord Of The Rings Based Story)
by LunarTiger19
Summary: Tara, a ranger from Middle Earth and friend to Legolas Thranduilin, is transported to our world but can't remember anything about Middle Earth; untill Legolas finds a way to cross over and find her.


Across Worlds: A Ranger's Tale

A/N: This is my first time writing fanfiction and I am open to constructive criticism. I hope you lot enjoy this as much as I do/did writing this. I will be posting new chapters as often as I can.

I DO NOT OWN ANY PART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY OR ANY OF TOLKIEN'S WORKS.

Billings, Montana. Mid December, another storm brings flurries of snow to add yet another layer to the already thigh-high snowfall. All is calm, as is normal, and James and Kathy Brunswick sit inside their small home. This is the only building for miles. There is one road, and it is visible from the front windows of the couple's house. Few venture out this way, as it is on the farthest outskirts of town and there is no reason to travel that direction. Nothing out of the ordinary happens out here, ever.

Until now.

Little did anybody know, this storm was unlike any other. It was bringing something new to this world, something that had a secret. In the distance, freshly fallen snow stirred against the wind. It began scuttling along in a distinct pattern, circling and circling faster and faster. A whirlwind of ice crystals formed a snowy twister until a large _"Crack"_ rang out, as if a thousand year old tree had just been struck with a clap of lightning and fell. Silence followed. Kathy ran out to the back window to investigate.

"James! James! Come quick!" she called. In the direction from whence the sound came, was a figure of a person.

"Kathleen? What is it?" James responded as he ran up to the window as well. "Dear Lord above!" he exclaimed, seeing the figure out in the freezing snow. He pulled on a thick winter's coat before rushing outside into the frost.

"Hello? Someone out there?" he called, shielding his face from the wind with his arm. He got closer and closer, but he still could not make out the figure well. There was no answer.

"We've got a house down there. You should come inside before you catch a death of cold!" he called as he still waded through the storm. Still no answer. As he got closer he could slowly make out the shape more clearly. He soon inferred that it was a young woman, no older than 18, she was unconscious and tied to a wooden post that had never been on his property before.

"Sweet merciless- Kathy! Get some blankets ready!" he called back as he rushed quickly to the unconscious girl. Bruises and cuts covered her skin from head to toe, and a large gash cut across her back; her clothes were torn, dirty, and worn out, and also very strange as they seemed to be made by hand and from raw materials. James didn't care, he wanted to make sure this girl was safe inside and out of the frozen air. He pulled out his pocketknife from his back pocket and sawed away the ropes that bound her to the wooden beam.

Scooping her up in his arms, he carried her inside and laid her down on the living room sofa. Kathy quickly engulfed the girl in blankets. She ran into the kitchen without a word to fetch things to help with the girl's cuts. She returned and began working.

James and Kathy kept watch over the girl, unsure of what to do with her unconscious. Kathy occasionally knelt down next to the sofa maternally and fixed the girl's long brown hair so it'd lay nicer. It was many long hours before she woke up.

The girl slowly opened her eyes and assessed her surroundings. Where was she? She did not know and could hardly remember where she was before, she almost didn't want to. She noticed the two people across the room

"Ias cuina-ni?" she asked frightened in the language she knew, _"Where am I?" _ She watched as the male and female exchanged confused glances. "Ias cuina-ni?" _"Where am I?" _she repeated as the woman softly knelt some feet away from her, palms raised unmenacingly. She pointed at herself "Kathy." The older woman stated, the younger concluded that there was a language barrier and in turn pointed to herself "Tara".

Many years passed. James and Kathy had decided to contact the police about Tara not long after she had awoke and an investigation went on for a great deal of the time that had passed. Tara eventually learned English, with impeccable speed, and it was found that Tara was sixteen years of age, and knew nothing else of what had happened to her, nor how she accumulated the bruises and scars. Tara was adopted by the Brunswicks as soon as it was possible, as she and Kathy grew a strong relationship over the course of the investigation.

She was now rearing the age of twenty one, five years had passed, and throughout those years she never regained knowledge of her past. All was well and happy; she grew in well understanding of American culture and worked hard with James on their land and with the horses they owned. It was with those horses that she felt most at ease; they were familiar to her, as were the plethora of hunting knives James owned and used. She somehow already had this knowledge, yet she did not remember learning it. She also grew to like it there, but the only thing wrong was the constant nightmares.

Tara's nightmares were always the same: riding swiftly on the back of a black horse, hearing the light _"Thwick" _of arrows whizzing by her head, the twang of crude bowstrings not far behind her. She was being chased by someone, someone who didn't want her reaching her destination, but her course was set and she would not be swayed. "Taetha Huir!" _"Faster Huir!" _ she called to her horse and he quickened his pace. She felt as if her destination was not far, but her predators were nearing and their arrows started to become closer to their target, leaving cuts on her arms where they had just slightly missed. Huir leaped over fallen trees and into narrow gaps, but their pursuers could not be shook.

She heard the singing of a sweeter bowstring, then the large _"thunk" _of someone falling off their horse behind her. She looked into the trees ahead, seeing a man. His long hair was of the richest gold, his skin the fairest she had seen, his ears distinctly pointed, his clothes and bracers of fine craftsmanship. Tara's expression lightened at the sight of him,"Legolas" she said to herself in relief. As she rode towards him she felt that at last her journey was at an end, but such feelings were false. While distracted, a rider had neared her and unsheathed his sword, slashing it across her back. She cried out and fell off her horse, feeling a sharp pain in the back of her skull once hitting the ground. Everything went blurry and the last cohesive thing she saw was the fair man running for her. After that was a mixture of harsh yells, screams, clanging of metal, and pain.

The pain would always be what woke her and she coped with these nightmares, assuming it was just some horrific thing that her imagination conjured up. She simply ignored them and went on with daily life, feeding the horses, plowing a field or two in the spring, etc. What she really loves to do is to saddle up a horse and ride off into the mountains a few miles from the farm. Today she's doing just that.

As the spotted horse, Benjamin, trotted up the path, Tara sighed happily at the beautiful golden leaves in the treetops and on the forest floor. She led Benjamin to her favorite little spot in the woods, a small clearing surrounded by aspens in which a babbling brook tickled through the middle of. Dismounting, she tied him to a tree and pulled out a book from the saddlebag before sitting next to a rock by the brook. As she read hours went by and the sun grew lower and lower. Tara looked up and sighed at the fact that she needed to go back. Not long after she stood up there was a much too familiar _"Crack" _and her face went blank "No…It couldn't be…not again," she said to herself before mounting Benjamin and racing towards the sound.

It couldn't be true, there was no possible way. She hoped with all her strength that the crack was just a tree falling, and that no one suffered like she did from whatever had caused her this amnesia. As she kicked Benjamin into full speed, she continued this hope. Suddenly, Benjamin halted and she had to hold tight to keep from being thrown forward. Something had caused him to stop, and when she looked ahead, she saw the reason behind it.

Tara was shocked, it was the man from her nightmares, "Legolas."

~~~TBC~~~


End file.
